Intro to Rhetoric

The listener, viewer, or reader of a text.

• audience

• context

• persona

• occasion

The circumstances, atmosphere, attitudes, people, places, and events surrounding a text. For the Budweiser commercial, it is the recent natural disasters and the company's participation in the relief efforts.

• connotation

• context

• rhetorical appeals

• rhetorical triangle

Speakers appeal to this to demonstrate that they are knowledgeable, credible, and trustworthy to speak on a given topic. It is established by both who you are and what you say.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• persona

Speakers appeal to _____, or reason, by offering clear, rational ideas and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back them up.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• persona

Speakers appeal to this to emotionally motivate their audience. More specific appeals to this might play on the audience’s values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• persona

Greek for “mask.” The face or character that a speaker shows to his or her audience.

• ethos

• pathos

• persona

• speaker

the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

• concession

• persona

• polemic

• rhetoric

A way to appeal to PATHOS is . . .

• Include information in graphs and tables

• Explain why something is morally right

• Tell a story that makes people feel a certain way

• Give false information

A way to appeal to LOGOS is . . .

• Use statistics and data to prove a point

• Show how you can be trusted

• Show pictures that make people feel a certain way

• Cite the research you used

A way to appeal to ETHOS is . . .

• Use strong words that make people feel a certain way

• Provide evidence of how you are an expert on the topic

• Use charts and numbers as evidence of your claim(s)

• Include pictures of cute babies and nature